News Trading: Earnings, Data Releases and Events

News trading means taking positions because of new information: a central bank decision, an inflation figure, a company’s results. It is the style where the market moves fastest and where a manual trader is most often on the wrong side of the speed race. This course teaches what can be done by hand, and what should be left alone.

How does news trading work?

Markets price the expected number before it arrives. When the release comes out, prices move on the difference between the result and that expectation, not on whether the number sounds good. The course has you study past releases in your market so that you know the usual size of the move and how often the first reaction reverses.

Why do spreads widen around news releases?

Because market makers do not know where the new price will be, and they protect themselves by quoting wider and smaller. Stops placed just before a release can fill far from their level. The course shows you how to measure this in your market and how to size for it, or stay out.

Who is this course for?

Day traders and swing traders who hold positions through scheduled events and want a written policy for them. No programming is needed.

What you will be able to do

• Read an economic and earnings calendar and rank events by their past effect on your market.
• Measure a release as a surprise against consensus, and explain why the reaction can look backwards.
• Plan a news trade with sizing that allows for widened spreads, slippage and gaps.
• Decide from your own record which events you trade, which you avoid and which you close positions ahead of.

Syllabus, module by module

1. The calendar

   Central bank decisions, inflation and jobs data, earnings seasons, and where to find the schedule.

2. Expectations and surprises

   Consensus forecasts, whisper numbers and why the market moves on the gap between them and the result.

3. Earnings releases

   Results, guidance and the reaction across the overnight gap and the first hour.

4. Liquidity around events

   Spreads, depth and slippage in the seconds before and after a release.

5. Unscheduled news

   Headlines, rumours and halts: how fast information really reaches a manual trader.

6. An event policy

   Which events to trade, which to avoid and how to handle open positions through them.

How the certificate is earned

Weekly event studies and two graded problem sets: a twenty-event study of one release type in one market, and a written event policy tested on a simulated record. On a pass you receive the Course certificate in News Trading, issued by the Institute with a verification code. Read how certification works.

Before you start

Day Trading for Beginners: What It Really Takes and Trading Costs: Bid-Ask Spreads, Commissions and Slippage.

• Day Trading for Beginners: What It Really Takes
• Trading Costs: Bid-Ask Spreads, Commissions and Slippage